The four-year-old iPhone doesn’t have ample power to cater to iOS 7’s hefty animations, but iOS 7.1 makes life a bit easier.

When it was first released back in 2010, the iPhone 4 became an instant hit. It changed the way people look at smartphones, the way people look at the iPhone. But as all good things must come to an end, the iPhone 4 too is reaching the end of the line. It’s unlikely that the next major iOS update will support the outdated smartphone.

Released last year, iOS 7 the biggest user interface and user experience update Apple has ever made. It introduced a plethora of graphical effects and relies heavily on sweeping animations that a bit too much for the iPhone 4’s frail A4 processor. Those who updated to iOS 7.0 complained of performance going down the drain, the phone just doesn’t run as fast as it did on iOS 6. While users won’t experience those speeds on the latest firmware, iOS 7.1 does ease things up a bit and improve performance on the iPhone 4.

Unfortunately, the modest gains in performance are limited to stock applications. iOS 7.1 doesn’t do any better in CPU, GPU and browser based benchmarks when compared with iOS 7.0. While Apple did introduce options to get a grip on animations in iOS 7.0.3, iOS 7.1 is good for people who don’t tinker with their devices’ settings. All animation durations have been shortened, which directly reflects on the time it takes for an app to launch and become ready for user input. As far as stock applications are concerned, there are noticeable improvements in speed, as laid out in the chart posted above.

It would be a safe bet to assume that this is the best iOS 7.x is going to perform on the iPhone 4. The device itself has been discontinued and Apple certainly won’t spend time tweaking software for it. The only option for those looking for a faster and better iOS 7 experience is to buy a faster iPhone.